Nanda Ravindran
Vice President, Product Development, Edgecore Networks
Nanda Ravindran began his career at C-DOT in India, then spent about 15 years in the US working for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) networking vendors and start-ups. He returned to India a decade ago and held product development and management roles at Tellabs, Coriant and Infinera before joining Edgecore Networks in 2021.
Edgecore is a premium provider of open networking technologies globally. It offers cutting-edge artificial intelligence/machine learning switches and servers, powered by leading global chipset vendors. It also provides plug-and-play transceivers and cables, fully qualified with Edgecore switches.
In his current role, Ravindran is responsible for the company’s products and solutions strategy. He also oversees Edgecore’s sales operations in India. However, the team faces challenges in growing the adoption of open networking solutions within Indian customers. Ravindran’s experience at large OEMs, where he developed various networking solutions for Tier I customers globally, proves valuable in raising awareness about the benefits of open networking solutions.
He believes that India is a fast growing market for digital infrastructure. “India is one of the top generators and consumers of data in the world through digital content and commerce. This provides huge prospects for data networking. We see that the capacity requirements in data centres or telco networks is accelerating due to the penetration of 5G and broadband access”, he adds.
He sees four key trends shaping the data centre industry. Firstly, enterprises in India are moving from cloud data centres to hybrid/on-prem data centre infrastructure, opening opportunities for providers like Edgecore. Secondly, data centre network port switching capacity is migrating from speeds of 100G to 400G/800G and beyond. Thirdly, 5G and broadband penetration is poised to accelerate, reaching over 800 million subscribers. Lastly, with the adoption of technologies like segment routing, networks are becoming simpler and more resilient. “Government incentives to manufacture in India are another key trend that encourages us to manufacture our products in India”, he adds.
As for his management style, he fosters a collaborative relationship with his team, recognising each member as a stakeholder in delivering value to customers.
The little time that he gets away from work is spent travelling with his family – his wife and their two children. “My wife also started her career in the networking industry, before transitioning to become a freelance counsellor in the field of higher education and career development”, he adds.
